The objective: to secure a role for Apple in the growing e-commerce market, putting the 400 million-plus users with credit cards on file with Apple's iTunes Store to work shopping--with Apple getting a cut of the action.

The use of "Private" in this note's title isn't a facile pun. It points to a possible avenue for the BlackBerry maker. If it decides to license the software layer of its (formerly) proprietary platform, RIM will indisputably see hardware dollars disappear much faster than software licenses can be signed. RIM will forego a known source of revenue in order to grow a new income stream that, given enough time, might be strong enough to keep the company solvent

Some of them have been acquired and made a hell of a lot of money. Some of them haven't. Some of them have seen through their initial ideas and are still going strong, while some abandoned their ideas before even finishing the program.